The 50th anniversary of a vivid national turning point is being discussed this week by Americans of all ages. Older ones remember it directly from black-and-white TV newscasts. Others have read about it, watched videos and perhaps have seen anniversary week programs on just about every channel. The observances recall the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy as he rode through downtown Dallas, sitting next to his wife in a convertible.

Grief, shock and disbelief gripped the country. Ask any grandparent or older adult where he or she was when the news came a half-century ago and there will be no hesitation recalling the awful moment. “It was like we all felt on 9/11,” recalls Bob Schieffer, a veteran CBS correspondent who covered the tragedy. “We didn't know what it meant. We didn't know if this was the beginning of World War III.” Emotions were tugged further when suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was shot fatally while in police custody, a shocking event televised live.

Historians and ordinary people say America wasn’t the same after those days. “Loss of innocence” is among descriptions frequently used. “We’ll never be young again,” a U.S. senator named Daniel Patrick Moynihan was quoted as saying. One reason it’s seen as a turning point is because the following years in that decade of the 1960s were uneasy – with an unpopular military draft, protests against U.S. fighting in Vietnam and two more assassinations that claimed civil rights leader Martin Luther King and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, younger brother of JFK. Commemorations this Friday will include ringing church bells throughout Dallas, a military flyover and a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m., the time Kennedy was shot.

Funeral memory: “Every moment tore your heart out. You looked at the Kennedy family so close, so young, so vital, so noble, and this beautiful person, Jacqueline Kennedy, standing with a child in each hand, so terribly alone.” -- Luci Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson

Professor says: “All the presidents try to imitate John F. Kennedy, but they can't. He had a special magic, a special combination of rhetorical ability, the ability to inspire and also self-deprecating humor, which some of our presidents really ought to acquire.” – Larry Sabato, University of Virginia political scientist

JFK daughter: Caroline Kennedy, who turned 6 a few days after her father died, arrived in Tokyo last week as the first female U.S. ambassador to Japan – a job she received from President Obama